Canada unveiled draft rules on Friday for a law to compel internet giants to pay news outlets, saying it was addressing the tech companies’ concerns, but Facebook said it would stick to plans to block news in the country.
Canada said the draft rules, designed to implement the recently-passed Online News Act, would address worries at Alphabet’s GOOGL.O Google and Facebook-parent Meta META.O that they could face an uncapped liability.
“The regulatory process is not equipped to address the fundamentally flawed premise of the Online News Act … today’s proposed regulations will not impact our business decision to end news availability in Canada,” Rachel Curran, Meta Canada’s head of public policy, said in a statement.
Canada’s Online News Act, part of a global trend to make internet giants pay for news, became law in June and is expected to come into effect in December after rules are finalized.
The legislation came after complaints from Canada’s media industry, which wants tighter regulation of tech companies to prevent them from elbowing news businesses out of the online advertising market.
Both Google and Facebook have said the law is unworkable for their businesses, and Meta ended news sharing on its platforms in Canada last month.
A spokesperson for Google said the company was reviewing the proposed regulations “to assess whether they resolve the serious structural issues” with the law.
According to the draft regulations, companies would need to voluntarily negotiate deals with news publishers and pay a portion of their global revenues, based on a set calculation.
The draft proposals are expected to raise C$172 million ($126.6 million) per year from Google and about C$60 million per year from Facebook, a government official said.
Meta’s revenue last year was about $117 billion, or about $320 million a day. Its decision to block news links in Canada has had almost no impact on Canadians’ usage of Facebook, according to data from independent tracking firms.
If companies do not meet a payments threshold through voluntary deals, they may have to go through mandatory bargaining overseen by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).
Government officials in a briefing side-stepped questions about what would happen if companies blocked news on their platforms and did not participate in negotiations at all.
“The position of the Canadian government is that in light of that dominant position that they occupy in terms of being that gatekeeper to content, there is a responsibility on their part to come forward and bargain fairly with us,” an official said.
The Canadian regulator responsible said last week that it would start setting up a framework for negotiations between news organizations and internet giants this autumn, with the aim of initiating mandatory bargaining by early 2025.
The draft rules allow for both monetary and non-monetary contributions to news businesses and consideration of pre-existing deals.
Any agreements that Google and Facebook reach must also cover independent local, Indigenous and official language minority community news businesses, according to the draft regulations.
MONTREAL – Quebec’s ombudsperson is warning that public services are becoming “dehumanized” in the province amid a rise in demand for them.
Marc-André Dowd released his annual report today, which highlights several examples of people receiving inadequate care across the health network in the 12 months leading to March 31.
One dying man who lived alone was denied help cleaning his cat’s litter box by his local health clinic, a service Dowd says should have been given for “humanitarian reasons.”
Dowd also describes staff at a long-term care home feeding residents “mechanically” and talking among each other — despite health ministry guidelines directing staff to maintain eye contact with residents.
The ombudsperson says his office received a record number of problems to investigate across the province’s public services — 24,867 compared with 22,053 last year.
He says his office investigated 13,358 cases between April 2023 and March of this year.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
OTTAWA – French President Emmanuel Macron will visit Canada next week after a planned trip in July was cancelled amid political turmoil in France.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in a statement today that Macron will be in Canada Wednesday and Thursday after the leaders attend the United Nations General Assembly in New York City.
Trudeau will welcome Macron in Ottawa on Wednesday, where they are expected to discuss collaboration on geopolitical issues including their ongoing support for Ukraine.
They are also expected to discuss ways to strengthen the response to emerging threats, such as disinformation.
In Montreal, Trudeau intends to show off the city’s artificial intelligence sector, while both countries reaffirm their commitment to work with counterparts on responsible use of AI.
The leaders will also discuss promoting the French language ahead of the Francophonie summit being held in France next month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Health Canada has authorized Novavax’s updated COVID-19 vaccine that protects against currently circulating variants of the virus.
The protein-based vaccine, called Nuvaxovid, has been reformulated to target the JN.1 subvariant of Omicron.
It will replace the previous version of the vaccine, which targeted the XBB.1.5 subvariant of Omicron.
Health Canada recently asked provinces and territories to get rid of their older COVID-19 vaccines to ensure the most current vaccine will be used during this fall’s respiratory virus season.
Earlier this week, Health Canada approved Moderna’s updated mRNA COVID vaccine.
It is still reviewing Pfizer’s updated mRNA vaccine, with a decision expected soon.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version erroneously described the Novavax vaccine as an mRNA shot.
